Fresh Ideas

We've been dealing with sobering realities. Time and budgets are tight, but there's more to do than ever. We're working harder and smarter, knowing that change presents opportunities.

Tough times call for creative minds, so I conducted an experiment.

The setting: I invited a cross section of business leaders, creative professionals and entrepreneurs to participate in a prototyping process.

The focus: creating a resource for keeping our thinking fresh and flexible, in the moment and over time. A way to add some creative zest to our work.

The response: smart, talented colleagues and clients from fields including innovation, organizational development, sales and marketing, communications, executive administration and entrepreneurship worked with me to shape the focus, content and presentation of a new resource.

The outcome: Fresh Ideas. Fresh Ideas is a creative catalyst that is

Sustained: Every two weeks, for either six or twelve months, you receive an e-mailed issue describing a specific creative thinking strategy, examples of how it's been used, and ways to apply it yourself.

Informative: The strategies and examples within Fresh Ideas are drawn from past and current literature on creativity, leadership and innovation. The topics are purposefully eclectic, providing a diverse range of starting points.

Actionable: Each issue runs about 500 words, making it easy to absorb and apply quickly. Receiving content in small bites helps you build a habit of thinking more creatively; week after week, application after application, insight after insight.

Engaging: You can learn from others' experiences, and reinforce your own success, by joining the conversation at the Fresh Ideas: What Works blog.

Come take a look. You can preview and work with a few free issues of Fresh Ideas by clicking here.

Better Brainstorming: Charge Admission

Pulling together some brilliant minds to generate some brilliant ideas?

Make the most of your time together by charging admission to the meeting.

Before holding the group brainstorming session, send a preliminary invitation to your targeted participants. Clearly define the challenge and why it's important, provide as much background information as you think they'll need, and describe what you'd like the brainstorming to produce.

Ask them to independently generate and post several initial ideas. Provide a posting venue they can easily access, such as a

• physical venue: using a centrally located whiteboard or flipcharts,
• public virtual venue: using a site like evernote or ning,
• private virtual venue: like your company intranet or a private LinkedIn group.

Review basic brainstorming etiquette and ask for their ideas by a specific date.

Those that post several ideas, review and build on the ideas already posted, and demonstrate good brainstorming etiquette by the date requested are admitted to the group brainstorming meeting.

The group's time is then used by invested, engaged thinkers to augment and improve their initial ideas.

This approach accommodates different thinking styles, builds in an incubation period, and optimizes the time spent thinking together.

Capitalizing on Conflict

We should use not only

all the brains we have,

but all that we can borrow. -Woodrow Wilson


Conflict signals the opportunity to learn. Your interpretation of another's behavior, message or intent may be correct, almost correct, or incorrect. Your conflicting point of view may be completely accurate, or may need to be updated.

One of the most impactful responses to conflict is listening.

When you recognize a discussion is entering the realm of conflict:

• Stop listening for correctness, or opportunities for rebuttal, and start listening for meaning.

• Summarize, in your own words, the other person's point of view. Ask if you heard it right.

• Wait for an answer. Make sure that a person that starts a sentence gets to end it.

• Don't give up if you don't get it right at first. The greater the distance between your mindsets the greater the opportunity for learning ... and the harder you may have to work.

• Ask what you got right, and what's off base.

• Pay attention to your emotions. A strong response to a conflicting point of view signals that a deeply held belief is being tested or denied. Check to ensure your nonverbals and word choices are helpful.

• Identify what you're learning. Understanding the other point of view doesn't mean you agree with it, just that you're hearing what's meant.

Most of us listen better once we feel understood.

So in addition to creating the opportunity to learn something new, listening in this way increases the likelihood you will be heard in turn.

Bend and Break and Recreate

If you're not getting the results you want, try breaking - or at least bending - the rules that guide your typical approach.

For example,

Don't immerse yourself in a stubborn challenge. Distance yourself from it.

Creating physical or psychological distance can help us find creative solutions, by changing how we mentally represent things. Distancing from a time (projecting the challenge into the future) or probability (assuming success is more or less likely) perspective can also increase creative thinking.

Learn more about how psychological distance impacts creativity here.

Don't work to understand the challenge. Work to understand the context.

Design thinking helps would-be problem solvers avoid solving the wrong problem by immersing themselves in the world of the user before defining the problem to solve. Reading context clues and observing interactions within the environment can uncover more powerful needs.

Find resources and references for designing discovery strategies here.

Don't meet or exceed expectations. Recreate them.

If you want more of the same, keep doing and thinking what you're doing and thinking. Not everything needs to change. But if you want different results, consider ways to crack open new possibilities here.

At COMPIO, we have been busy prototyping new ways to deliver our services. Stay tuned for updates on what we're learning as we bend and break the rules that have guided our approaches.

Your Priorities Are Showing

There's a difference between forced-ranking and prioritizing.

Forced ranking is reactive, "With everything there is to do, what to do first?"

Priorities are pro-active; they're what you attend to while everything else waits.

To understand today's priorities, notice where you spend most of your time.

While you're busy with these things, you're setting aside other things.

Moving forward, ask yourself:

• How do I define success? This is a good question to revisit regularly.

• What am I doing that is getting in the way of my version of success? Find ways to stop doing these things, or do less of them.

• What will I do instead, to achieve more of this success? A priority is something you do, not something you intend. If you're not doing it, it's not a priority.

Your priorities shape your success. There's no need for a priorities list - what you do, and don't do, is shouting out what is important to you.

QuestionAble

When you need a better answer, turn your question on its head.

In other words, create your own version of a Sky Planter :








When you change your focus

from "How to find a job?"
to "How to make it easy for a job to find me?"

or

from "How to use social networking"
to "How to network our various social groups?"

or even

from "How to build a better Swiss army knife?"
to "What could a Swiss army knife be used to build?"

you create a shift that creates new ideas.

So when you get stuck:

- List as many questions as you can about your issue.
- Twist these questions.
- And answer your twisted questions until the ideas start flowing again.

Can You See It?

Want to make your next presentation even more engaging and memorable?

Create your slide deck using pictures... only pictures.




Select a series of images that illustrate your point

(this will also help you focus your message).







Sequence the images so they tell a story.

And, as you speak, let the images carry your audience

from where they are

to where you want to take them.


Imagery kindles emotions, imagination and personal connections.

Your audience will be more engaged during your talk,

and remember the experience longer after they leave.


To play with this idea, you can:

- Watch National Geographic's David Griffin use this approach.

- Find free images at Wikimedia Commons and Google Images.

- Read Presentation Zen.

Uniquely Effective

"You are all unique and special, just like everyone else."
- Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Want to become even more effective?

Get very clear about how well today's work aligns with

• What you know you do best - the things that make you feel strong when you do them; and
• What matters most - the values and drivers that define "good work" for you; and
• The stressors that can push your buttons - triggering behaviors that derail your success.

How can you better understand your strengths, drivers and risks?

• Conduct an informal 360 feedback process, asking people who know you well to describe the most valuable things you do better than others, what they think keeps you motivated and productive, and what may be blind spots for you; or
• Do a self-audit, using a resource like the free Leadership Capital tool; or
• Complete a professional assessment and work with a coach to identify how your profile interacts with your goals.

What can you do once you're clear about your strengths, drivers and risks?

• Each week, spend a little more of your time on activities that use your strengths.
• Every day, work on responsibilities that relate to your interests and values.
• Over time, build habits that help you sidestep derailers while you bring more of your best to your work.

We each have the ability to be uniquely effective. The example we set can help others become so too.

T-Shaped Thinking

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Specialization can increase productivity at the expense of creativity. Specialists are certainly valuable (would you rather have a surgeon or a family practitioner perform your operation?); but creativity also requires cross-boundary thinking.

The creative consultancy IDEO describes its best employees as "T-shaped." The horizontal line represents breadth of knowledge over many subject areas, and the vertical line represents depth of knowledge and experience in a specific field. Some of their superstars are F-shaped or E-shaped, with broad interests and depth in several fields.

When you live broadly, learning about and getting involved in a variety of activities, you tend to think broadly. You're also more likely to be tolerant of others that think and live broadly.

Bottom line: continue to build your areas of expertise AND devote yourself to the pursuit of interesting new experiences. You'll have more fun while becoming more effective.

Responding to Praise

Do compliments make you squirm?

If you really want to hear what people think, you need to accept and appreciate all kinds of feedback.

Even praise.

So respond in a way that communicates your openness to feedback:

• Maintain eye contact.


• Keep an open posture and an open mind as you listen.


• Don't question motive or accuracy.


• Just say "thank you."

That's it. No quips or self-effacing remarks. No need to agree or disagree.

At that moment, it's really not about you.

It's about the speaker, and what the speaker wants you to know.

Sifting Assumptions

Our understanding of the rules shapes how we play the game. These rules are learned or based on experience.

Our understanding of the "givens" shapes how we solve our problems. These assumptions are also based on learning and experience, and put boundaries around the options we see.

But there is a way to shift the impact of your assumptions, using them as catalysts for game changing inspirations:

List the "givens" in your challenge. If your challenge has to do with laptop computers, these could include

• Laptop computers have keyboards.


• They have one screen.


• The screen flips up.


• We interact with software through the computer ...

Consider each "given" in turn, asking, "What if we changed or reversed this truth in some way; then what could be possible?"

• What if they didn't have keyboards? Then ...


• What if they had several screens? Then ...


• What if there were several screens ... and they interacted with each other? Then ...

David Merrill explored the possibilities listed above while building Siftables.

Siftables are cookie-sized computer tiles that can be stacked and shifted; interacting with the user and each other; creating images, calculations, language, even music. See Siftables in action by clicking here .

A universe of possibility opens up as you learn to recognize, test and challenge your assumptions.

Got Stress?

Find your funny bone.

Robert Mankoff, Cartoon Editor of The New Yorker magazine, spends his days working with and responding to humor. He sees the affiliative impact it can have, drawing others in and connecting them; and the stress relief and entertainment it provides. He also describes humor as a coping function that opens us up to newer and broader perspectives. "If we can't laugh at something, it means our view is tunnel vision, we are a little bit panicked. As soon as we remove ourselves enough to laugh at something, that actually gives us a wider ambit to think about it." "I don't think you have been in any situation in which you've been developing ideas and things have been creative in which you are not communicating and laughing."

When you need a new and better solution, take a minute to appreciate the lighter side of things. You'll feel better and think bigger, and you'll encourage others to do the same.

Click here for a quick humor break.

Click here to watch Robert Mankoff's interview with Charlie Rose.

Shift Gears

What's one of your most persistent challenges? You know, one that won't go away - because the strategies you've tried to date haven't been as effective as they need to be.

As you return to the challenge, do you notice that your responses tend to be variations of familiar themes? It's time to deliberately shift gears.

Here's one way to do so:

• Write your challenge in the form of a question (How can we...?).


• Find a random image that has no relationship to your challenge.


• List your reactions to the image - whatever comes to mind.


• Re-read your challenge statement, and then one of your impressions.


• Assume the impression is a clue to a better solution.


• Write down every possible connection or idea that comes to mind.


• Move on to the next impression, and repeat as often as necessary.

You can practice this process, using the free Shift Gears tool . If you're lucky, the first image you use will spark promising new associations. More often, it takes several images over time. You will come up with new ideas.

This works because it forces you to begin from a perspective outside your habitual ways of thinking, working harder to make a new kind of connection - understanding and thinking about your challenge in a slightly different way.

Celebrating Well and Often

Achievement oriented leaders can be quicker to set goals than celebrate progress.

How well and often do you celebrate?

Celebrations are important during good times; and even more important during challenging times.

Taking time to appreciate what you have and what you've accomplished builds resilience, maintains momentum and helps you enjoy success as you create it.

When I asked clients to describe their favorite ways of celebrating, they described

• Activities connecting with friends.


• Closing the door and taking a minute to savor the accomplishment.


• Doing a mitzvah; a good deed for others that extends the good fortune.


• Analyzing what worked best, and replaying it in their minds.


• Going for a walk, playing music, making a toast, saying a prayer....

The most satisfying celebrations reflected their values and personalities. What kind of celebrations do you enjoy most? Who could you celebrate with more often?

Positive Uses of Negative Spaces

In art, negative space is what you see around and within the subject of a piece. Negative space can be used dramatically and creatively.

In conversations, you can use the negative space by noticing what's not being said, or the question that hasn't been asked.

Strategically, the negative space holds opportunities created by unexpected or unwanted events. Notice the way future Speaker of the House Rahm Emanuel uses negative space when he says, ''You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste; it's an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.'' And the way CMU professor Rami el Samahy, optimizes negative space when he encourages designers studying an urban area to stop trying to bring back those who've left - and start asking themselves what new opportunities the vacant spaces allow them to create.

When you're working on something important,
step back,
consider the context
and look for opportunities in the "negative space."

Heavyweight Challenges

Those who have been there will tell you;

leadership is hard,

innovations fail more often than they succeed,

and parenting is not for the faint hearted.

Heavyweight challenges require sustained, adaptive and often courageous effort.

What's the most difficult, enduring challenge you continue to pursue?

What values do your non-negotiable aspirations reflect?

Keep going and keep learning.

The greater the challenge

the deeper the insights,

the sweeter the victories,

the more confident your approach to accomplishing even more.

A Notable Strategy

This year's exceptional events, including some extraordinary stressors, have required new ways of working and thinking. The upside: stressful times are often a catalyst for new insights. The more unusual the times, the greater the likelihood of new ideas.

But it's important to note new ideas quickly, before losing them in the press of the day. Doing so creates a personal source book for future accomplishments.

Notable, a portable tool for catching and creating good ideas in the moment, is a thoughtful resource that grows in value with each entry. As you use Notable, or give it to others to use, you're reinforcing a practical, generative habit that has fueled the success of leaders throughout time.

The tool you use to capture interesting ideas, insights and information isn't as important as the habit of capturing them quickly. Write, diagram or cut and paste them into whatever type of journal works best for you. Return to these ideas now and then, looking for ways to connect and buld the most notable ones.

Partnering for Productivity

How well do you use complementary types of expertise to advance your work - even if they come from outside your organization?

Proctor and Gamble's "connect + develop" strategy was designed to leverage their R&D resources. They post their challenges on-line and elicit bids from others who can help them. This strategy has led to a dramatic increase in productivity and innovation success rates.

Define what you do best. Find ways to spend more of your time exercising those capabilities, and develop relationships with partners whose strengths complement yours. This strategy works on an individual, team and organizational level.

Experimenting with Success

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that, "All life is an experiment; the more experiments you make the better."

Emerson also said, "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

The link between these two thoughts: when you have something important to accomplish, but are not quite sure how to achieve it, try a few experiments.

Create a hypothesis, or even just an interesting idea, and test it - with the goal of learning something new and useful. Identify what you learned and let that shape your next experiment.

This strategy can reduce your level of risk and break big challenges into a series of more manageable queries.

Generative Strengths

Our strengths are the things we consistently and easily do better than most. We tend to be drawn to situations that require them, because they challenge us in ways we like to be challenged. As we learn how to use certain strengths to accomplish what's important, they become generative strengths.

This applies on both a personal level and a business level.

Think about your best successes to date. What strengths supported each of them? Which strengths cut across most of them?

Corning has produced life-changing technologies for over 100 years. Their process for sustained creativity is a generative strength. This strength enabled them to create the first successful light bulbs for Thomas Edison ... and then a machine to mass produce them. They mass-produced glass color-TV tubes, dominating the market to the point the U.S. Justice Department got involved. They moved on again - to make most of the thermometer glass sold in our country, window glass for the United States' first manned spaceships, and the technology that lets you take a dish from freezer to oven to table. But Corning's business isn't about light bulbs, TV tubes or dishes today. They invented optical fiber, a piece of technology without which there would be no internet or commercialized LCD glass, and are now working with several other promising new ideas.

Which of your distinctive strengths will you use to create new forms of success?

Failing Well

Big ambitions and big achievements require a resilience honed by setbacks, new learning, and a commitment to your version of success. In his commencement address at San Francisco State University, Mayor Gavin Newsom highlighted setbacks navigated by some notable achievers:

• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team ... because he wasn't good enough.


• Elvis Presley got an F in Music.


• Winston Churchill finished last in his class ... and later remarked that the secret to success was "going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

Another notable Churchill observation: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." What historical heavyweight do you think persevered through the following?

• 1831: failed in business.


• 1832: lost his bid for a legislative seat.


• 1834: failed again in business.


• 1835: sweetheart died.


• 1836: had a nervous breakdown.


• 1838: lost his second political race.


• 1843: defeated for Congress.


• 1846: defeated for Congress.


• 1848: defeated for Congress.


• 1855: defeated for US Senate.


• 1856: defeated for Vice President.


• 1858: defeated for US Senate.


• In 1860 he was elected 16th President of the United States.

What types of challenges are worth pursuing even though you may fail?

What was the best mistake you ever made?

COMPIO means "I accomplish." When you're ready to accomplish more, we're here to help.

Conceptual Creativity

When someone says "I'm not creative" they often mean "I'm not artistic." Artistic creativity produces experiences that help us see or understand things in a new way. Conceptual creativity identifies new ways to meet an important challenge. Conceptual creativity is both new and relevant.

Conceptual creativity is the engine of business innovation. It helps us solve problems in new ways - often by integrating current knowledge with new concepts. When Henry Ford wanted a faster, cheaper way to make cars, he combined his knowledge of automobile production with concepts from meat packing (assembly lines), the US Army (interchangeable mechanical parts), and cigarette production (continuous-flow production).

Transportation expert Robin Chase combined wireless technology, fleet service and pay-as-you-go concepts to create Zip Car (http://www.zipcar.com/ ), a rapidly growing urban car sharing service. She built on the success of this venture by combining social networking and wireless technology to create GoLoco (http://www.goloco.org/greetings/guest), a service that creates personal public transportation networks. Conceptual creativity and artistic creativity are both fueled by exposure to diverse fields of knowledge.

Coaching tip: Take quick, enriching breaks that expose you to ideas from many fields by clicking onto http://ted.com/ about once a week and watching one of their brief but "inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers." Make a note (see http://www.compio.net/Notable.asp ) of interesting ideas from each talk. This practice will develop a source book of approaches and ideas to consider as you address your next important challenge.

Your Leadership Wake

Today's note is inspired by a quote attributed to Hans Sachs, 16C poet, singer and dramatist,

"Mensch, was du tust, bedenk' das End; das wird die höchste Weisheit genennt."

("People, when you do something, think of the end result; that is the wisest approach.")

So, for centuries leaders have been working to "start with the end in mind."

Personal Leadership Link: Every conversation leaves an emotional aftermath - how do you want others to say they feel after spending time with you?

Coaching Point: What habit could you develop to create this kind of impact?

Welcome to Quick Notes

My name is Tracy Fuller, I'm the Managing Director of COMPIO. In April 2008, I started experimenting with sending clients and colleagues brief, intermittent prompts for approaching their work more creatively and effectively. My goal was to share simple, actionable ways to continuously increase their effectiveness.

These "Quick Notes" were well received and their distribution list grew. Recipients often sent me replies containing feedback and their own ideas. I've started this blog to accomplish two aims:

• create a bank of past and current Quick Notes
• provide a forum for posting how you applied the prompts, ask questions, or share your own helpful resources.

I'll post the past Quick Notes over the next few days. Once I've caught up to the current post, you'll notice that new Quick Notes only start appearing every few weeks. You're busy, I'm busy and I only create them when I run across a potent opportunity or notice a repeating theme across different clients' work. Your comments and feedback are, of course, always welcome.

I hope you enjoy these Quick Notes and find them helpful. Let me know what you think.

Here's to your continued success -